I just learned today, while scrolling through various newspapers, mainly the Guardian, of Summerside, Prince Edward Island, that my Great Grandfather Gabe Gallant received a long service award from Holman’s. I’m including the news here.
As a result of this ‘find’, I gave my Great Auntie Gladys a phone call, the second one in two days. I asked her about Holman’s and she assured me that the big brick building is still on the same corner, however they are using a lot of the space as offices and such.
Papie’s work was hard work. For as long as Gladys could remember, Papie shoveled coal. Holman’s sold coal at what she said was a very dear price to people and Papie was designated the shoveler. He never had a driver’s licence, so that is what he qualified for. Gladys explained that in the basement, everyone had a window shoot that you would open for your coal delivery. You would use a pail to carry what you needed to heat your stove upstairs as well. Every morning after the coal delivery, children would take to the streets with wagons and pick up bits of coal that had fallen during the delivery. She said that a piece of coal was quite heavy, “so, just imagine what a pail would weigh?”
I looked a little into the Holman family and am going to go from distant history forward to the passing of Alan Holman who died in 2010, the last to work in the family firm, R. T. Holman Ltd.
This source confirms what, for me, was an unusual bit of news when I asked Gladys what Gabe did for the Holman Company and she said…shoveled coal. I had to crack a smile when I read about Gabe Gallant up dancing the heel and toe at the annual celebration of long service awards.
I believe that there one of the Holman family continues to be involved in the Historical Society of Summerside and I think I just might be contacting him regarding some fact-finding.